Update: Man removed on stretcher from area where police searched for alleged homicide suspect

Press Photo/Dave RaczkowskiWyoming authorities attempt to dig up a suspect who they believe ducked into a drain pipe at Marquette Park in Wyoming on Tuesday.

WYOMING -- The FBI Fugitive Task Force spent most of Tuesday chasing a suspect in a Tampa, Fla., homicide. We have been reporting the story as it breaks, return to mlive.com/grand-rapids for updates.

For a chronological version, read from the bottom up.

Posted at 8:30 p.m.

Authorities have removed a man on a stretcher from the area where they were searching for the suspect in underground pipes. The suspect's condition wasn't immediately clear, and police have yet to say if he was pulled from the pipes or found in a surrounding area about 8:15 p.m.

He was placed in an ambulance and taken to Saint Mary's Health Care, authorities said.

Posted 7:58 p.m.

City workers brought in a camera truck to peer into the hole being excavated by a backhoe as the search continued.

Because troopers were blocked by debris, they started the search from a different direction in case the missing man was trapped beneath the ground in the muck.

They believe he is underground after finding a muddy handprint.

Posted at 7:06 p.m.

Grand Rapids authorities searching for a possible Florida homicide suspect say they have found muddy handprints on underground piping near Kimball Field, not far from where the unidentified man first disappeared. Michigan State Police troopers dropped themselves down manholes in search of the man around 5 p.m. today.

Police believe he entered the underground pipes through a drainage ditch not far from the Hall Street turkey factory where police first attempted contact. The search for the man started around 1 p.m. at the factory and led police down Plaster Creek, the Grand River and now beneath the city. The waning daylight and dropping temperatures make the search more difficult, but put police are not giving up.

"Right now, the feeling is that we really don't want to leave," said Mason. "They are in an area the officers have not been able to get past. They will stay because they saw someone had clawed there, and there were muddy handprints along the pipes," said Mason. Police were bringing in an engineer from Wyoming and additional officers to figure out the schematics of the pipe.

Press Photo/Emily ZoladzGrand Rapids firefighters and a state trooper with his dog search the Grand River for a man who fled from police and was thought to have jumped into the river Tuesday afternoon.

Posted at 5 p.m.

Police now say they believe the suspect is alive and is hiding in the underground draining pipe system.

Officers thought the suspect was probably dead in the river and were for a time calling it a recovery effort. But within the past hour, they received new information from a witness who saw a man cross Plaster Creek and enter a manhole about 25 yards from the factory where he had been working and fled from police.

As police searched through the pipes, one of the troopers emerged from a manhole covered in mud, Grand Rapids Lt. Ralph Mason said.

The pipes are large enough for a person to stand in.

Press Photo/Emily ZoladzOff Market Avenue SW, south of Godfrey Street, divers prepare for a river search for an alleged homicide suspect.

Posted at 4:12 p.m.

The fire department has called off the river search.
"It's looking more like it will be a recovery at this point," said Grand Rapids Fire Department Battalion Chief Peg Felix.

Press Photo/Emily ZoladzA state policeman searches for a man who fled from police and was thought to have jumped in the river Tuesday afternoon near Plaster Creek.

Posted at 3:45 p.m.

Grand Rapids Police say the fleeing suspect was working at the turkey plant facility in the 1100 block of Hall Street SW when police, acting on a tip, approached him.

"We don't even know if it is the person they are looking for in the homicide, but he fled and we pursued," Mason said. "This may be just someone who fled because he has a traffic warrant."

At the same time, police are searching the area using a State Police helicopter, the Grand Rapids Fire Department rescue boat and with police from several local, state and federal law enforcement agencies talking to neighbors and searching the area on the ground.

Press Photo/Emily ZoladzOfficials circle Plaster Creek and the Grand River searching for a man who fled from police and was thought to have jumped in the river Tuesday afternoon.

Posted at 2:35 p.m.

The Michigan State Police helicopter is on its way to aid in the search.

Posted at 2:09 p.m.

Three rescue divers from the Grand Rapids Fire Department are staged at the Grand Rapids Asphalt Paving Company at 1100 Market St. SW in case the suspect floats down river toward them.

Police are concerned he may still be armed, according to Fire Captain Craig Holtrop.

Posted at 1:50 p.m.

Police have moved their manhunt near a home in the 1200 block of Judd Street SW and the woods near the Grand River in Wyoming.

Police have been told video cameras at the Michigan Turkey Producers Factory on Chicago Drive SW caught the suspect diving into Plaster Creek.

Grand Rapids also has launched its water rescue boat to help with the search.

Press Photo/Emily ZoladzOn Market Avenue SW, south of Godfrey Street, FBI and police officers search for a man they believe is a suspect in a Tampa homicide.

Posted at 1:26 p.m.

WYOMING -- The FBI Fugitive Task Force is chasing a man through Grand Rapids who they believe is a suspect in a Tampa, Fla., homicide.

The chase was going on near the Wyoming-Grand Rapids city limits on Market Street SW.

The suspect, in his 40s, is on foot and FBI agents were joined in pursuit by police from several area agencies.

Police say the suspect is wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and was last seen near Plaster Creek near Freeman Avenue SW. Police also are searching the fast-flowing Grand River to make sure the man did not jump in.